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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27550303">The Statement Of Mr Pitch.</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Urbenmyth/pseuds/Urbenmyth'>Urbenmyth</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Tales Beyond The Archives [12]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Magnus Archives (Podcast)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>And the totally normal sounds of a house settling you will hear tonight, As inspired by various metafictional works, This is either very clever or very pretentious, unreality</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 03:20:20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>755</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27550303</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Urbenmyth/pseuds/Urbenmyth</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>You're an adult. Mature, grown up, knowledgeable.</p><p>You're not afraid of the Dark, are you?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Tales Beyond The Archives [12]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1965088</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Statement Of Mr Pitch.</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Let me ask you a question.</p><p>Imagine a thing born of fear. A thing <em> made </em> of fear.</p><p>What does it mean for that thing to be real?</p><p>And when would it <em> become </em>real?</p><p>Would it be when you were young? The first time something waited in the closet or clawed at the window or lurked under the bed?</p><p>What did you learn it was? A coat placed over a chair? A branch against the window? A house settling, a pipe rattling? Something small and harmless, something your parents could put you to bed with.</p><p>But were you not still scared? And in that case, was that monster not still there?</p><p>Maybe not.</p><p>Maybe it was later.</p><p>Was it born in sodium-lighting, walking home at night? Muggers and murderers and worse, cast in flickering shadows?</p><p>Was it the flickering light of a movie screen, or TV, or computer screen, and the horrors you saw on it? The horrors you still saw in the dark of your bedroom?</p><p>Was it a blown fuse, or lighting strike, or cut utility, and suddenly your house was no longer yours? Suddenly it was a dark place, a strange and alien one where terrible things could be hiding?</p><p>Were those real?</p><p>No?</p><p>Do you think it was later still?</p><p>When you were sat in the dark, a flickering computer screen or smartphone lighting the room, and a man spoke to you of stories.</p><p>He told you stories of horror and fear, of creatures born of nightmare, and didn’t a shudder run up your spine? Didn’t you have trouble sleeping later? Didn’t you see something in the shadows?</p><p>Didn’t he tell you what it was? </p><p>A chilling fanfic there, a gruesome fanart there. Fan theories, headcanons, discussions of implications and nightmares.</p><p>And with each one, another shudder of fear down your spine.</p><p>They’re not real, of course. You know that. On an intellectual level, you aren’t scared, are you? You don’t believe in the entities.</p><p>You’re not scared of some laughing fractal thing, or some worm queen, or <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27650123">some ever-watchful eye</a>. They’re too rational, too...high concept. You can easily ignore them.</p><p>If this would make something happen, it would have to be something <em> deeper </em>.</p><p>Something that preys on your “childish fears”. The fears you pretend you don’t feel. That you’re too old, too brave, too rational to feel. The parts that are too simple to think that it’s just a show, just fiction. The parts that will fear it anyway.</p><p>So.</p><p>You’re not scared of the dark, are you?</p><p>You’re not afraid of Mr Pitch?</p><p>Of course you’re not.</p><p>Philosophical nonsense. It’s quite simple.</p><p>There are no monsters. There’s no leitners, no avatars, no domains. No entities.</p><p>And you’ve always felt that after an episode, haven’t you? That fear has never lingered? Made you see something moving out the corner of your eye, had an image linger in your mind?</p><p>Made you see something in the shadows? In the Dark?</p><p>I’m sure it hasn’t.</p><p>Soon, you’ll be in bed, turning out the lights.</p><p>Just the thin light of a phone screen, and around you, an ocean of black. And you won’t remember this story.</p><p>And you won’t believe in Mr Pitch.</p><p>And that means you won’t be scared of the Dark, yes?</p><p>And when you think you see something move out the corner of your eye? When you think you hear something creaking downstairs? Well, you’re a grown up now, too old to fear bumps in the night. Too rational. Too smart.</p><p>And you won’t be scared, will you?</p><p>You’ll keep the lights off. You’ll go under the blankets, and you’ll close your eyes.</p><p>You’ll lie there in the Dark, and think yourself safe.</p><p>And why not?</p><p>It’s not real after all.</p><p>There is nothing sat there, waiting for you to close your eyes, to leave yourself vulnerable. There is nothing taking form with each warped shadow and creaking floorboard, building on that simple primal fear of the thing in the darkness. Nothing that is the fear of what might be in the dark, that fear that surely you have not felt in so long.</p><p>Nothing stood just outside the light, watching, smiling at the knowledge you know its name, and that all it needs now is for you to fear it just a little. <em> Bit </em>. <b> <em>More.</em> </b></p><p>No.</p><p>Of course you won’t be scared.</p><p>You’re an adult now. And there’s no such thing as Mr Pitch.</p><p>It is time to go to bed, my brave, rational, ignorant child.</p><p>Goodnight.</p><p>Sleep well.</p>
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